EC’s EVM procurement project to be discussed at next ECNEC meeting: planning minister

Planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said Tuesday that Election Commission’s Electronic Voting Machine procurement project would be discussed at the next Executive Committee of the National Economic Council meeting on Tuesday.Speaking at a news conference he called at the Planning Commission after Tuesday ECNEC meeting Kamal said that the government was planning to use EVMs in the next general election as an experiment.He also said that electronic voting would be held if the Representation of the People Order was amended.In early August, the EC submitted a proposal to Planning Commission seeking its approval for the procurement of 1.5 lakh EVMs at an approximate cost of Tk 3,821 crore.EC officials said that procurement of each EVM would cost nearly Tk two lakh and that the EVMs might be bought from the Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory.At electoral dialogues with registered political parties hosted by the EC last year, 35 out of 40 registered parties including BNP opposed the use of EVMs in the next general election.Besides Zaker Party, only ruling Awami League and its collation partners, Workers Party, JSD and BSD (M-L) favoured the use of EVMs.